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Does anyone else think they should have just scrapped Hot Dog off ITTOD and put Darlene instead? It's gold, and clearly a better song than Hot Dog. It was recorded at the ITTOD sessions. No clue why they left it out.

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Does anyone else think they should have just scrapped Hot Dog off ITTOD and put Darlene instead? It's gold, and clearly a better song than Hot Dog. It was recorded at the ITTOD sessions. No clue why they left it out.

Because it's not as good as you think. It has some moments, but it's clumsy and doesn't groove nearly as well as "Hot Dog" and "South Bound Saurez". It's clearly a work-in-progress, as most of the other ITTOD sessions-era stuff on Coda are.

The only Coda song that warrants a place on ITTOD is "Wearing and Tearing".

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Does anyone else think they should have just scrapped Hot Dog off ITTOD and put Darlene instead? It's gold, and clearly a better song than Hot Dog. It was recorded at the ITTOD sessions. No clue why they left it out.

NO FUCKING WAY!!! Hot Dog is a GREAT tune, but it would have been cool if they had simply added an additional track to the album which in this case would have been Darlene assuming they would have had time to finish it the way they wanted it to sound.

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No. They got the track arrangement for ITTOD just right. The only ITTOD outtake that isn't semi-disposable is Wearin' and Tearin'. Although I am very appreciative of Ozone Baby and Darlene, I can easily see why they did not make the final cut. Hot Dog is a Zeppelin masterpiece, and a test of people's true appreciation of their diversity. Such an amazing little ditty.

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Oh Christ! Hell NO! Please! Let ITTOD stay the way it is, OK? "Darlene" is an OK song, in my book. I like the guitar riffs but I'm not crazy about it.

"Hot Dog" (as I mentioned earlier in another thread) just screams fun and makes a bold album like ITTOD, all the more unique! Apart from other gems like "South Bound Suarez", "Fool In The Rain" and "Carouselambra", "Hot Dog" is definitely one of the essential elements of ITTOD! The album itself will end up getting terribly botched up, if "Hot Dog" was replaced by "Darlene".

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I love ITTOD, and I've expressed my love for that album in other threads... but, I've always felt that if I had to take one track away from ITTOD and replace it with a CODA track, I might substitute South Bound Saurez for Darlene... Maybe it's just me who feels that way.

And as much as I love the bassline for Ozone Baby, I'm not sure if there's a place for that song on ITTOD. I feel the same way about Wearing and Tearing....

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I actually like Hot Dog but I can see why some fans didn't care for it at the time, and also why it had no live performance future in any of the future Zep and solo ventures. It seems to have been a song that meant a lot to them at the time. I recall the grins and fun the band had with it at the Knebworth shows where they showcased it. It comes across as very Robert and we know how he, more than any of them, went with these fleeting musical impulses of the time. Robert was certainly the ever-onward driver of the band.

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I could see Darlene working on the record. But I think Darlene, fool in the rain and south bound suarez would gel too well together, would create too much flow for the record...although ofcourse there's carouselambra on there...so we are not talking about an album of symmetry anyway. I sorta see hot dog like the crunge...something weird and cool, a disjointed flow to the listening experience...while adding a fun factor to a record.